Extended vacation

[Akw78]

My family purchased our 18ftx52in, metal frame Intex pool this summer. We live in AZ, so we are the only people we know who have an above ground pool. We are going to be out of town for about a month this summer. My question is, what is the best course of action for our pool care? Take it down and put it up again upon our return? Winterize it for the month we're gone?
THANKS!

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! If you close it full, you'll have green soup when you return. Do you have a trusted friend or neighbor perhaps that can check on the pool every other day or so? Clean the skimmer and add chlorine? The tough thing about draining a pool completely is that once it's been filled, we worry about the ground moving (probably not an issue there) or the liner and walls shifting a bit. Then when you go to refill things just don't go back into place like when you firsts filled. If you do decide to simply close it, you could lower the water level down to about 1-2 feet. That should be enough weight to keep everything stable. Then you would have to top it off when you got back and do a SLAM Process to clear the algae.

 

[kellyfair]

Are you able to leave your pump on a timer, or do you want to shut everything off? If you can leave it on and have a friend or neighbor check on it, as long as your CYA isn’t too high, you could use pucks while you are gone.

If you have to shut everything off, I like Pat’s idea of partial drain, then refill and SLAM when you return.